2018 pre-season testing thread

[F1Fan2018]

Not trying to jump on the bandwagon but just thought id post this.

Sky F1 Ted Kravitz

Concerns for Ferrari?
Despite Sebastian Vettel's quickest time yesterday, there appeared little worry among the other leading teams and Ted Kravitz has been examining if the Scuderia has fallen back from last year.

“I think what gave it away yesterday was Sebastian Vettel may have set a new unofficial lap record, but we’re still very much downplaying his achievement. We’re effectively saying ‘it’s not that good’.

“That has got everyone slightly worried for Ferrari’s sake because they were right up there with Mercedes last year. But it does seem that Mercedes, who haven’t done a run on low fuel yet or tried the softest tyre, are up there.

“The closest challenger then does seem to be Red Bull who have really hit the sweet spot on their car and are not bothered by the problems they had last year.

“Ferrari are even behind Red Bull. The question is, why that is?

“Ferrari had the car with the most downforce last year so you thought they would carry that over without any risk of getting it wrong. There has been a rule change on engines. There was a system where you could bleed fuel back into your engine last year which you are not allowed to do this year – the fuel and waste oil has to come out the back."

[1158]

Alonso caused the first red flag of the day when he stopped at Turn 7 with oil spilling from his McLaren-Renault. The team says it's now carrying out an engine change.

[Vanja #66]

This is getting ridiculous. Click bait headlines, poor content, selective information for the reader. F1 media is getting really low...

[Restomaniac]

Not trying to jump on the bandwagon but just thought id post this.

Sky F1 Ted Kravitz

Concerns for Ferrari?
Despite Sebastian Vettel's quickest time yesterday, there appeared little worry among the other leading teams and Ted Kravitz has been examining if the Scuderia has fallen back from last year.

“I think what gave it away yesterday was Sebastian Vettel may have set a new unofficial lap record, but we’re still very much downplaying his achievement. We’re effectively saying ‘it’s not that good’.

“That has got everyone slightly worried for Ferrari’s sake because they were right up there with Mercedes last year. But it does seem that Mercedes, who haven’t done a run on low fuel yet or tried the softest tyre, are up there.

“The closest challenger then does seem to be Red Bull who have really hit the sweet spot on their car and are not bothered by the problems they had last year.

“Ferrari are even behind Red Bull. The question is, why that is?

“Ferrari had the car with the most downforce last year so you thought they would carry that over without any risk of getting it wrong. There has been a rule change on engines. There was a system where you could bleed fuel back into your engine last year which you are not allowed to do this year – the fuel and waste oil has to come out the back."

This is a good point.

Could the fact that only Ferrari engines seem to be blowing smoke out of the back point to some of their issues and of course that is before the fact that they decided to drastically change their concept.

[bosyber]

So it would be all in the engine?

But then, why do Haas seem content with their times, running on the same engine. Even if they were on fumes, they still are running the same engine as Ferrari, so any difference there has to be chassis.

And there's no reason that Ferrari went backwards on that (maybe not as well forward). I'm willing to believe Red Bull snuck in between them and Mercedces, but that would seem to imply that both those teams made a good step even from end of last year while Ferrari couldn't, maybe because now they both had opportunity to work around the suspension ban. Still wouldn't expect huge shift.

[F1Fan2018]

Again Sky F1 and again just posting for info

Engine change for McLaren
Déjà vu for McLaren as the team confirm they are changing the Renault unit in the MCL33 after stopping on track after just seven laps.

No confirmation what caused the stoppage yet, with the team still investigating.

[Phil]

Based on the sims times posted I came up with the following like for like comparisons.

• Same lap
• assumed same fuel load
• same tire compund
• different number of laps on the tires

https://image.ibb.co/dNUvHn/sims2018.png

People should upvote Dans post more. Very good information.

AMuS just reported that Hamilton is still on his first stint and while starting slow, has already dipped into the high 1:21.x times by lap 19. Given Bottas was still doing mid to high 22 times, that sounds rather fast. :O

[Dimi]

Sound like mguk for mclaren

[F1Fan2018]

Based on the sims times posted I came up with the following like for like comparisons.

• Same lap
• assumed same fuel load
• same tire compund
• different number of laps on the tires

https://image.ibb.co/dNUvHn/sims2018.png

People should upvote Dans post more. Very good information.

AMuS just reported that Hamilton is still on his first stint and while starting slow, has already dipped into the high 1:21.x times by lap 19. Given Bottas was still doing mid to high 22 times, that sounds rather fast. :O

Anyone got any stint lengths and lap times for Hamilton?

[Phil]

Not yet, he is still running. AMuS will have them when his stint ends, i’m sure.

[johnny comelately]

re Alonso McLaren: the sound was a seizure of some kind: the engine was still running and it coasted into the escape road which almost for sure says gearbox not locked up, so with smoke (which was hard to see where it emanated from)was it turbo? do they have shrapnel protection on inlet?

[F1Fan2018]

Not yet, he is still running. AMuS will have them when his stint ends, i’m sure.

Ok great thanks

[random1283]

Just like to point out that the renault engines are running detuned (reliability for testing i think), mercedes most likely knows this and can see this from the GPS traces, therefore the red bulls are most likely quicker than they appear.

[Sevach]

Pirelli announced the tyres that will be available for the first 6 races:

Australia: S - SS - US
Bahrain: M - S - SS
China: M - S - SS
Azerbaijan: S - SS - US
Spain: M - S - SS
Canada: SS - US - HS

Source: AMuS

China seems to be M-S-US(jumping SS).

[LM10]

Hamilton's first stint on Mediums:

2:14 (Outlap) - 1:25.0 - 1:24.2 - 1:23.9 - 1:23.6 - 1:23.6 - 1:22.8 - 1:22.9 - 1:22.6 - 1:22.8 - 1:22.8 - 1:22.6 - 1:24.2 - 1:22.8 - 1:22.6 - 1:22.6 - 1:22.3 - 1:22.4 - 1:22.0 - 1:21.9 - 1:21.8 - 1:21.8 - 1:21.8 - 1:22.1 - 1:21.6 - 1:21.4 - 1:23.1 - 1:22.6 - Inlap (1:22.9)